News Updates

We are proud to announce that for the first time, the Central Sinama to English Dictionary is available for download as an app from Google Play. This dictionary has a wealth of information on the Sinama language. Version 1.0 has 13,325 entries in Sinama and 10,455 English reversal entries. The work of compiling this dictionary […]

The Sama (called Bajau by the outside world) are prolific freedivers. People want to know why. If you ask the Sama about their deepest divers they will tell you the answer is the diver used ilmuꞌ. Ilmuꞌ could be defined as a type of magic or knowledge. The most renowned spearfishermen and pearl divers are said by […]

A Dream of Publishing 10 Books in Sinama a Year Since 2012 it has been a dream of mine to see at least 10 books published in the Sinama language a year. The premise behind this dream is based off of the core concepts behind multilingual based mother tongue education. School age children will be […]

High Quality Stories with a Distinct Sama Context I am very impressed with the last set of published big books in Sinama. One of the qualifications for a good book is that they fit the context of the language they are being written in. The feedback I’ve received so far shows that we have done […]

No Supply and No Demand for Sama Books Hopefully in 2016 and beyond we will continue to see at least 10 Sama Books published a year. There still remains one major hurdle to overcome. Books in Sinama are a novelty, they are not the norm. You can’t go to a bookstore and find them. Rarely […]

More Dreaming of a Program to Provide Sinama Books for Schools Not every one that should be using the Sinama books we are producing will be able to buy them. Maybe the price is still too prohibitive or maybe getting a budget for books in a minority language is something that school administration cannot prioritize. […]

I was privileged to be in attendance at the 1st International Conference on the Sama Dilaut hosted by Mindanao State University Tawi-Tawi. My three days in Tawi-Tawi (December 1-3) were spent surrounded by scholars, political leaders and activists, teachers, school administrators, NGOs, artists, Sama from various linguistic sub-groups including the Sama Dilaut, and a wide […]

marginalize
verb
past tense: marginalized; past participle: marginalized
treat (a person, group, or concept) as insignificant or peripheral.
The Sama with their co-inhabitants of Rio Hondo are cast out of the city. Out of the way. The rulers of the city indeed find them insignificant. Those of importance are those that provide the Latin origin for this city. The Chabacanos.